The North Atlantic Alliance has already destroyed all normal contacts with Moscow. Statements to abolish the Russia-NATO Council are meaningless. This was stated by the spokeswoman of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, quoted by TASS.
Earlier, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski announced that NATO was preparing a decision to dissolve the Council. According to Maria Zakharova, against the background of all the other aggressive statements that have been made and actions taken to literally destroy normal relations, these plans have no real meaning. According to her, NATO should ask itself another question - what are they trying to achieve with such statements, rhetoric and aggressive actions?
Relations between Russia and NATO were established in the early 1990s. In 1997, the countries signed the Founding Act, declaring that they did not consider each other adversaries and creating a framework for consultations. The Russia-NATO Council was established in 2002.
Until 2014, Russia and NATO cooperated in the fight against terrorism, the fight against drug trafficking and anti-piracy operations. After the events in Ukraine in the same year, the alliance froze cooperation. Since 2019, dialogue within the framework of the Russia-NATO Council has been practically suspended, and in 2021, Russia suspended the work of its permanent mission to NATO in Brussels and closed NATO offices in Moscow.
TASS points out that since 2014, NATO has significantly expanded its military activities near Russia's borders and increased the scale of its exercises. After the start of the special military operation, the alliance sharply increased its presence on the eastern flank, and member states began to provide extensive military assistance to Ukraine.